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A song can be a bridge from the purely physical body to what lies beyond. Just as lullabies send babies to sleep, so songs can help those at the other end of life on their way.

Nobody understands this better than the Threshold Choir singers. In a person’s final hours and days, members of the Threshold Choir visit bedsides and sing. Acapella voices harmonise and vibrate with songs specially composed to cultivate an environment of love and safety around people on their deathbed. For the volunteer choir members, it is also an opportunity to channel their own experiences of grief and together open up conversations about death.

Worldwide there are over 200 official chapters of the Threshold Choir, mostly in the US. Choristers can be requested to attend bedsides and usually three or four singers will be dispatched. Choir volunteers are not there for performance. Their songs fill the space when words run out. They sing gentle, non-religious songs in three-part harmony using soft, lullaby voices. Their songs accompany the dying with grace.

In the UK, an organisation called Companion Voices provide a similar service. Companion Voices’ songs are chosen to serve the purpose of creating a soundscape for people that will be comforting, relaxing and undemanding. To this end, they are simple and repetitive, drawn from a wide range of different traditions, and may have words in languages unknown to the recipient. Singers are trained to sing these songs but also to respond intuitively in the moment, perhaps improvising, taking the volume up or down, tapering to a single voice, hum or whatever seems the best fit.

The Guardian has published a short documentary where you can hear some volunteer singers in action and understand more about why they have been called to this activity. It is called, The last song: music at the threshold of life (21:45min).

Rest Easy: Songs of Comfort from the Threshold Choir is a collection of the Threshold Choir’s 25 most frequently sung songs. The collection commemorates the 25^th anniversary of the Threshold Choir and has been created to offer audible comfort when singers aren’t available to sing in person. It is available to stream or download free of charge.